[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by nuclearnerd

This may not interest you, because it requires a specialized machine, but our local community college (Mohawk) printed our intake rollers from nylon powder using the "Selective Laser Sintering" process (SLS). We were worried these wouldn't perform, but after a season of smashing the intake rollers against defense dividers, I can report that the rollers were tougher than the hex shaft that ran through them. An FDM printed roller would have cracked or crushed in this application for sure. We were very pleased, and hope to work with Mohawk again next year to print more SLS parts.

SLS is definitely a really cool technology that makes great parts. Unfortunately, most teams will not have access to SLS parts as the technology is considerably more expensive than an FDM printer. FDM parts are plenty robust enough for that application you described.

We used FDM to print our intake roller, among other parts this year and had no issues. We actually played all of our ~160 matches with the same roller this year, so it took a beating, but held up considerably well.



As with everything, its about using the technology and material smartly. We printed the 'shell' of the part we wanted because of its complex shape. FDM allowed us to make this helical screw type of intake that would be unachievable otherwise. We liked this because it was a lot less complex and a lot lighter than a row of mecanums. It also would also be way more maintenance friendly than adhering a strip of something to a cylinder.

We took our shell and epoxied it to a very thin wall aluminum pipe, and printed some endcaps to plug into the ends, complete with thunder hex pattern.

The other parts you see in the below picture, particularly the drums are our hanging drum/winch for our robot. We used these drums to wind the winch up and scale the castle. Easiest winch drums we ever made!



-Brando